ECOVIEWS: What did we lose to extinction in 2016?

Saturday

Jan 7, 2017 at 8:18 PM

By Whit Gibbons

The Cheetah race car went extinct in the 1960s. Almost two dozen are still in the hands of private owners, but the last ones were produced in 1965. The demise of this iconic race car may be troubling to some car enthusiasts. The potential extinction of the real cheetah should be of greater concern to everyone. A scientific report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences documents the steady decline of cheetahs across most of their native range. One analysis predicts that without major changes in land management we are on a trajectory that could see the extinction in the wild of the world’s fastest land mammal within our children’s lifetime. At the close of 2016, slightly more than 7,000 cheetahs were known to be alive in the wild, mostly in Africa. No cheetahs are in the hands of private owners in the United States because owning them is illegal here.

The primary conservation dilemma for maintaining sustainable wild populations in their native habitat is that cheetahs roam over vast areas in search of prey. Hence, individuals belonging to populations that live in protected areas range outside the reserves. Thus, as would be expected, encounters with a growing human population increase and the outcome for the cheetah is seldom positive.

Population declines that inexorably lead to extirpation of a species in a region and eventually extinction are becoming all too common. A sobering report titled “The Animals That Went Extinct in 2016” came from David A. Steen of Auburn University’s Museum of Natural History. His blog, Living Alongside Wildlife, lists animals around the world that will no longer be with us in the year to come. Many of those that went extinct in 2016 were species indigenous to particular islands; they succumbed to invasive species introduced by European explorers and colonists. Some unfortunate introductions were intentional but some were not, especially rats.

Norway rats, with the easy to remember scientific name Rattus rattus, have been a scourge to native animals on islands worldwide. Birds on the Hawaiian Islands have been devastated by rats, which were probably introduced by Captain Cook and his crew in the late 1700s. A totally different kind of rat, the Bramble Cay melomys or mosaic-tailed rat, received distinction in 2016 as a victim of decline and extinction rather than a perpetrator. The demise of this little rat, which was native to an uninhabited, approximately 10-acre island belonging to Australia, is notable: “The extinction of this small mammal is being attributed to climate change (the first mammal to receive this honor).”A rise in sea level means the small island is periodically inundated with seawater, an unfavorable habitat for any rat.

Barbados racers from, not surprisingly, Barbados are another 2016 extinction mentioned in Steen’s blog. These snakes were “eaten by invasive mongoose” that were brought to the island in an ill-considered plan to control rats. Steen notes that the San Cristobal vermilion flycatcher, a bird not seen since 1987, was declared extinct in 2016 after numerous searches. It has the distinction of being “the first bird species to have gone extinct in the Galapagos.”

The Turtle Survival Alliance provided a happier end-of-year report with the announcement that no turtle extinctions occurred during 2016. TSA comprises a global partnership of zoos, aquariums and conservation biologists committed to preventing any turtle extinctions during the 21st century. To achieve this goal TSA has active turtle breeding programs for critically endangered freshwater turtles and tortoises and has developed dynamic conservation programs around the world. Some species of turtles face serious ecological issues in certain countries, but TSA works to address problems as they arise in an effort to avoid extinction.

Turtles seem to be holding their own and some of the problems faced by cheetahs in the wild have been identified. Let’s hope neither turtles nor cheetahs show up on David Steen’s extinction list in 2017. Or, indeed, ever.

Whit Gibbons, professor emeritus of ecology, University of Georgia, grew up in Tuscaloosa. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Alabama and his Ph.D. from Michigan State University. Send environmental questions to ecoviews@gmail.com.

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